{"id":2635,"date":"2020-11-13T13:48:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T13:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/en\/?p=2635"},"modified":"2022-07-08T16:57:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T16:57:20","slug":"the-iran-china-partnership-bad-news-for-tech-companies-a-disaster-for-citizens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/english\/2020\/11\/13\/the-iran-china-partnership-bad-news-for-tech-companies-a-disaster-for-citizens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iran-China Partnership: A Bad Deal for Citizens and Tech Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early months of 2020 the Iranian government announced that the cabinet had approved the draft text of an agreement for a 25 year partnership with China. From the get-go the announcement received a significant amount of attention from the Iranian public and from high-profile political figures, despite few details being made publicly available.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>July 2020<\/span><\/a> a number of Iranian outlets published an 18-page document which appears to be a copy of the draft agreement that received government approval earlier in the year. The document is dated to June 2020, and contains some detail about a number of proposed areas of agreement. The publication of the leaked document led to an intensification of the criticism levelled against the proposed partnership deal. These critics included <\/span>more than 100 Iranian public figures, journalists, academics and opposition politicians based in the diaspora,<\/span><\/a> who wrote to UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres demanding that the UN intervene to stop the agreement from being signed. They made this call on the grounds that the proposed agreement forgoes Iran's sovereignty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cIran-China 25-Year Cooperation Program\u201d<\/span><\/a> (or the \u201cComprehensive Strategic Partnership between I.R. Iran & P.R. China\u201d) is an agreement drawn up between the governments of the two countries that may result in a <\/span>$400bn Chinese investment in Iran<\/span><\/a>. Included in the plan are a number of anticipated research and development collaborations between the two countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speculation around the deal captured public attention to the point that Iran\u2019s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also made his criticisms of the proposed deal public. <\/span>According to an article<\/span><\/a> published on the pro-Ahmadinejad site <\/span>Dolat-e Bahar <\/span><\/i>[\u201cThe Government of Spring\u201d], Ahmadinejad gave a speech in Gilan on June 27, where he stated: \"We have heard that they are negotiating and want to sign a new 25-year agreement with a foreign country, and no one knows [anything] about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are significant doubts about whether such an ambitious agreement could ever be signed, or indeed delivered. However, based on the leaked document, one significant aspect of the proposed deal is Iran\u2019s willingness to collaborate with China on its Internet localisation project. The document also provides some additional details around the potential scope of the proposed collaboration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last decade, Iran has insisted that the National Information Network (NIN) project\u2019s primary goal is to establish Iranian sovereignty in cyberspace. However, the extent of collaboration envisioned with China in the leaked draft leaves no doubt that by \u201csovereignty\u201d, Iran envisages its disconnection from the global web, and of its connections to Western Europe and North America. Indeed, based on the leaked document, it can be concluded that NIN\u2019s localisation plan seeks to achieve the localisation of cyberspace and the expansion of information controls, even at the expense of deepening its dependency on a global power such as China.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The collaboration and partnership proposed in the leaked document has serious implications for the digital rights of Internet users, and the continued vitality of the digital economy sector in Iran.\u00a0 The proposed partnership once again demonstrates how a lack of meaningful measures protecting digital rights can leave both users and private companies in Iran highly vulnerable to aggressive government interventions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Deal On ICT Cooperation<\/b><\/h2>\n

The 18-page leaked document contains a section labeled \u201cICT Cooperation\u201d, under which a number of bullet points outline the envisioned areas of collaboration between the two countries. These areas include the development of:<\/span><\/p>\n